The Things We Do For Love
by risenfromash
Summary: While Vera is away Apollo Maya keep a secret from Nick. What exactly is going on? Why does Nick feel like he's getting lied to? Will he have to use the magatama on his own family? Sequel to Our Secret Mission Cleaning the Slate Nick/Maya, Vera/Polly
1. Prologue

Risenfromash: This first chapter is just a prologue from Nick's POV. It may not be super-readable as it is stream of consciousness writing and present tense. So if you think this is crap please consider reading Chapter 1 when I post it because it will be in a completely different style. I'll be getting chapter one up soon. For those who read _Our Secret Mission_ this is a sequel to it and there are subtle references to it within and this happens after everything else I've posted about Polly and Vera with _Cleaning the Slate_ happening shortly before this begins.

_Previously in the Polly/Vera story arc… Convicted Felon Vera Misham has been offered the opportunity to clear her criminal record of her felony forgery counts if she would work with Interpol for six to nine months helping them improve their forgery prevention and detection program. Apollo and her fought about whether or not she should take the offer and they ended up breaking up three days before she departed for Europe. Apollo is now biding his time till her return still living in their apartment, caring for Vera's pet fish (Henry the Magnificent), and speaking to her daily by phone._

_ Nick and Maya were married a few months prior to Vera's departure and continue to live with Trucy at the office of the Wright Anything Office and Justice Defense Company._

PROLOGUE- Nick

I started noticing it about a week or so ago. Maya was different. She seemed really exhausted. I figured it was the change in the weather. That always gets me, but it had to be more than that.

Then I saw them holding one another. Maya was sitting on the couch and Apollo had his arm around her. They're friends. I don't have a problem with that. No big whoop. We're a close family; Trucy's always crawling all over someone hugging them or kissing them or talking about her panties. It's cool, right?

But for some reason the image of the two of them looking so cozy keeps popping into my head as I lay here in bed with her. She didn't even kiss me goodnight. I don't get it. It seemed like she was avoiding my eyes, too. What is she hiding from me? I thought that when we had stopped having to take our secret missions together that the lies and secrets had stopped as well. Isn't that what we had agreed?

Maybe the elders are bugging her again. They sure are bugging me. This whole "Mystic Phoenix" thing is wearing my patience thin…and I'm just too much of a wreck now to think about it what with the exam only a week away, but I'd feel so much better if Maya seemed like herself and quit avoiding me. Maybe she just wants to give me plenty of time to study, but I haven't had this much space since she moved in and, frankly, I don't like it. Maya, you need to go back to smothering me. That's how I like it!

~xxxx~

Ugh! I had hoped it was my overactive imagination that was telling me Apollo and Maya were hanging out today an awful lot lately. I do have a brain that has been programmed to spot conspiracies. I see every large hamper or suitcase as a potential way to transport a dead body and I see every object as a potential murder weapon. I know how much people can lie while looking you right in the eye, but I had hoped it was my imagination. Years as an Ace Attorney can warp your mind.

But today it was the same damn thing Trucy and I had stuff to do, but Apollo just hung out at the office with Maya. I **hate** having these suspicions. I'm jealous. I'm actually jealous! But I don't get it? It doesn't make sense. Why would Maya have waited for me all those years if after only a few months of marriage she would cheat? Maya can't cheat! It's not in her nature. Same with Apollo…but then what is up? Since when are those two so…tight?

Even Trucy seems to be on the outskirts of this secret. I wonder if Vera might know what's going on. I could call her and fish around, but what if I worry her? She's stressed out enough, as it is what with how hard Interpol is making her work and breaking up with Polly. If I so much as insinuate he might be interested in someone else she'll probably freak out. I can't believe those two are still pretending they're broken up. What a crock! Apollo loves Vera.

~xxxx~

Vera would be crushed if what I suspect is going on is. But it can't be. No way. Even thinking it makes me feel guilty.

But, if Maya and Apollo aren't messing around what the hell's going on? And why aren't they telling me? Maya tells me everything. We share **everything** with one another. So what gives? I see the way he's looking at her like he's worried about her, like he cares about her. Is my love and care not enough anymore?

She's bored of me already. Maybe our whole relationship was about longing to be together. Maybe that's what made it feel so special and now that we're finally together and don't have that maybe the mystery is gone. Maybe Maya now sees me for what I am, a washed up former attorney who has been barely supporting his daughter and himself through cheating at poker and just barely playing the piano and I'm old. Just like she always points out.

Our secret missions were really fun, but I'm happier now that everything's out in the open. Isn't she? Maybe I should take her away again. We could go somewhere new and rekindle things. I won't let this be the end…but what if she wants him instead of me?

Ugh! I shouldn't be thinking about this now. I've only got five more minutes before the break is over and then it's back to Scan-Tron land. I'm so tired of filling out bubbles and I've got to concentrate. That last section whooped my butt there was way too much civil liberties law on there. I'm no good at that. I'm never going to use that. And how do they expect us to remember all this stuff? I'm getting old. Don't they understand my memory isn't what it used to be? Why am I even trying? The wrongly accused have Apollo now. They don't need me. Apollo actually knows what he's doing, unlike me. I never knew what I was doing. I didn't know then and I don't know now.

Oh, my God! What will I do if she's leaving me? How can I already be messing it up? I thought we were happy…I really did. At least, I was happy. I couldn't believe we were finally together after all those years of having to lie about how we felt about one another and having to see each other in secret.

Up until now I've been happier than I've ever been. I finally have the two most precious women in my life together, Maya and Trucy under one roof. I have Maya in my bed with me every night. I never thought this would happen.

Maya, why are you keeping secrets from me again? **Why? I love you Maya! **Please tell me what is going on!

I'm shaken out of my horrific fears by a voice.

"Excuse me, sir…but are you THE Phoenix Wright?"

I look up from my cup of coffee. It's some soon-to-be-a-greenhorn-attorney. He is dressed in a pinstripe suit with a gaudy tie. He looks like he's Trucy's age. Maybe he's a protégé like Franziska but I doubt it I think everybody starts looking like a kid when you're as old as I am.

I nod. "Yes, I'm Phoenix Wright."

"Wow. You and Apollo Justice are such an inspiration to me." Amazingly, the guy is serious. Dead serious. I smile. Yeah, Polly and me have both had some great moments in court… and some great moments out of court. He's a good kid. I kinda wish he were my son or brother or something. The kid's really awesome. I can't imagine anyone else I'd trust with Trucy. "Thanks. Well, if it weren't for Apollo I couldn't even be here today."

"Oh, man." He pushes his glasses up his nose and smiles. "You're so amazing…do you have any advice for someone like me just out of school?"

"Where'd you go to school?" I'm genuinely curious. I visited the law school when Apollo was going there, but I haven't been back since. Maybe that's why this kid doesn't look familiar to me. Then again lawyers are a dime a dozen.

"Jefferson." Yuck. Jefferson. My first advice would have been to not go there, Ivy is such a better school but maybe he wasn't lucky enough to get into Ivy. I'm lost in my thoughts. What did he ask me? Oh, yes. Advice. I have none. After all, I messed up…well maybe I have some.

"Have a really good team. They should all be people you trust, people who are like a family to you. People you would risk your life for." I tear up. Without my family I wouldn't be here. I think about Maya and Ema and Trucy they're the best assistants you could ever have and none of them were ever formally trained. I think about Mia and Apollo the best partners anyone could hope for. Without these people I'd still be known as a crooked lawyer…well, more crooked than your average attorney anyways.

"Really, you think your assistants are that important?"

"Absolutely. Your partner, too."

"So, how do you pick them?"

"They don't. They pick you."

He looks at me like I'm crazy. I'm used to this look and I merely smirk. They're calling us back into the exam. I toss my coffee cup into the garbage and stuff my hands back into my hoodie pocket. Three more hours of torture to go. Yippee!

"Nice talking to you. Good luck." I tell him.

He nods at me and watches me as I head back into the exam room. I hope for his sake that he's not going into criminal law. It can eat you up and spit you out and this guy doesn't look like he could take it.

~xxxx~

That was a nice dinner Trucy made me. I wish I could have stomached more of it, but the tension is killing me. Before dinner I heard Maya whisper to Apollo that she'd "tell me after dinner" so I'm counting down the minutes until my world officially collapses.

I glance at Apollo. It's funny. He seems nervous, but not guilty. You'd think if he was messing around with my wife he's be acting at **least** as guilty as he does when he eats the last of the pudding without telling anyone. He's such a good kid. It's gotta be something else…it's just got to be.

I look around at "Apollo's" apartment. He must really love Vera because this is the girliest bachelor pad I've ever seen. Then again he's been in love with her from the first moment he saw her or so Trucy tells me. She was there; I wasn't. But it didn't take me long to pick up on the fact that for him Ms. Misham wasn't just another client. He didn't just want to get her a not guilty verdict he wanted to help her start a new life. And he has. I'm sure that if she were here none of this would be happening. Polly worships her. There's no way he and Maya would be…

Oh, Jesus. Trucy wants to play charades. Ok, munchkin. I'll play. I don't feel like it, but for you I'll do it. It's not your fault Daddy's world is falling apart around his eyeballs. Not that it isn't always doing that. Trucy, no matter what happens you and me have got each other even if Maya and Apollo decide to be together it'll be ok because I have you.

Oh, I should be paying attention. It's a movie title. Ok. Let's see. She's scratching her armpits and hopping around. Gotta be a monkey. I can't think of any movies about monkeys. All I can think of is you, Maya. Damn. Concentrate, Phoenix. Maya, you and I have gotta talk. If I'm making you unhappy you need to tell me. I'll try harder.

Do you think I'm pressuring you to get a job when I complain about the bills? Because I'm not. I'm just venting, letting off steam and frustration. I'm not mad. Or is it that I'm boring you? That's it isn't it? I'm too old for you and I'm completely uninteresting. That's what it is. Apollo's closer in age to you…but I don't get it. He's supposed to be with Vera. We all know this. We all see the way his eyes light up when she enters the room or when she calls from Europe. It's like the way I am when you're around, Maya. Oh, Maya.

Apollo got it! "3 Monkeys and a Pirate" that's a movie title? Never heard of it, but everybody else seems to have. Oh, my God. I'm old. I don't even know the names of popular movies. My live peaked ten years ago. I'm washed up. Why'd I even take the bar exam again?

Oh, Maya's turn. She's so excited. She's so adorable, so cute. I can't believe my life with her is falling apart. Concentrate. Put on a happy face for Trucy. Don't let your problems with Maya ruin this nice evening with the family.

She's motioning like she has a big belly. Trucy guessed Santa Claus. That's a good guess…oh; she's rocking her arms like she's rocking a baby to sleep.

I extend my arm and point while shouting it. "You're Having a Baby."

Maya's grinning and hopping up and down. Why is she so excited that I figured out…? Oh, my GOD!

"Maya. You're…pregnant?"

She's in my arms. Hugging me. I glance at Apollo. She's having his baby? I don't get this…I mean I heard him tell her she needed to tell me…oh, lord. I've been an idiot. He's been covering for her morning sickness so I'd take the damn bar exam. Of course, he covered for her. He would do anything for us. He and Maya would do this for me. It's so Maya and Apollo.

"You knew didn't you?" I look at him. He grins sheepishly and runs his hair through his spikes as he nods.

"I'm so relieved. I thought you were having an affair with Maya."

The shouts about my stupidity are surely heard around the globe and Maya's punch to my gut is **very **well deserved and even though it hurts I just grin. I grin from ear to ear. I've never been happier. I'm gonna be a Dad…again, Maya stills loves me, and I have the best friends and daughter on the planet. My life is awesome.

Risenfromash: In case it isn't obvious the last section was at Vera and Apollo's apartment because downstairs in the office where Truce and Maya/Nick live they only have a kitchenette so whenever they have a sit-down dinner they use Vera's apartment. I've had this happening in a lot of my stories, but I realize since Trucy was the cook it might confuse people why Nick was commenting on Vera/Polly's decorating which is of course all Vera and all lavender.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

"Is that a tuna sandwich?" She asked pointing to the half-eaten lump of food on a plate on my desk.

It was a hot afternoon and I was sitting at my desk drawing up some docs and reviewing my strategy in a vehicular homicide case, Gearshift Turnabout, when Maya had come to hover near my desk. Phoenix had taken Trucy out to play miniature golf as a special father/daughter outing so it was just the two of us alone in the office.

"Yeah, you want one? There's another can in the cupboard. I could make you one if you'd like."

I'm used to Maya asking about food. I've never met someone so food obsessed. But, Maya didn't look like she wanted my sandwich. No, she looked like she wanted to stamp it out of existence. The look of distaste on her face only grew stronger until she made a mad dash to the bathroom. Her ralphing sounded horrible.

_Oops! I didn't know she was sick._

She hadn't said anything. If I'd known I wouldn't have eaten around her. I guess I should have realized she didn't feel well… she had been sleeping a lot…

_Hey!_

Maya came out of the bathroom a few minutes later looking pale and sweaty. She gave me a quick glance and then sat on the couch.

"Should I be telling you congratulations?" I teased as I walked over to her.

Her eyes met mine as if challenging me to continue. "On what? Making it to the toilet in time?" But I knew she knew **exactly** what I was talking about.

She crossed her arms and said, "I have the stomach flu." And I felt the all too familiar tightening of my bracelet.

_Liar, liar pants on fire._

"You should leave or you'll get it, too." She threatened, which is not, I might add something Maya can actually pull off which made this far too good an opportunity for teasing for me to pass up. I grinned at her.

"Oh, I don't think there is any chance of **me** catching what you've got."

I waggled my eyebrows at her.

_So, soon we're going to have a little Nick or Maya running around. Way to go, Mr. Wright!_

"Maya, you don't need to be embarrassed. It's cool." I smiled at her encouragingly. I imagine being pregnant is kind-of embarrassing at first. I think if I were pregnant I might be tempted to claim it was an immaculate conception.

Her eyes again met mine but this time they were no longer sending daggers my way. She was caving. After all, they're no point lying to me. She knows that.

"Oh, God." She said grabbing my arm. "Please don't tell Nick!"

This caught me by total surprise and my eyebrows met one another as I scrunched my face in confusion. "He doesn't know?"

She shook her head.

"Well, he knows it could happen, right?"

Ok, I know that question sounds stupid. I knew perfectly well that Phoenix knew how this stuff worked. I wasn't suggesting Maya needed to send him back to junior high health class or something, but I wasn't sure why Maya would be hiding this from him. I figured he'd be ecstatic. I mean, I thought they were trying to get pregnant at the wedding everybody had been talking about it and I know people make asses of themselves at weddings always trying to insinuate that as soon as you're married it's all about screwing and baby making, but I really thought Phoenix was on board with this…

_Obviously the kid's his…so **what is the deal**?_

Maya looked down at her hands that were folded in her lap. "I just didn't expect it to happen so soon. They tell you this stuff could take years." Her eyebrows rose a little. "I guess we don't have any fertility problems."

_Oh, God. Please don't get into graphic details about sperm count or something. Then I may have to throw up. I love you guys and you're super cute together and I'm so happy for you, but there is a limit to how much I want to know about Mr. Wright._

"Anyways, Polly, you've got to promise not to tell him."

"No problem. There's no way I'm spilling the beans about this. Un-uh no way. This is between the two of you."

"Good." She said smiling with relief. "Because I'm not telling him until after he takes the bar exam." She bobbed her head with conviction.

I stared at her. The bar exam was in a little over 2 weeks. 2 weeks doesn't sound like a long time in regular time, but I was pretty sure in prego time it was a lot. Especially if she was going to be throwing up the whole time or not wanting to eat or whatever other weird things the I'm-knocked-up hormones do to women in the first few months.

_When Maya doesn't eat everybody notices. There is no way she can play it off like everything's normal._

"Maya, I think he's going to know something is up."

Maya nodded but she was determined. "You're right. He probably will, but if I tell Nick he is going to freak out and spend all his time worrying about me and he won't pass the exam. I know this. So, I'll just have to make stuff up until then. And **you're** going to help me." She said clasping her hand on mine.

The strength with which she was clutching my hand told me that I wasn't going to escape this duty even if it meant I was stuck in the middle of something beyond my control.

I shook my head. "Maya, I love you. And I love Phoenix. I want what's best for both of you, but being an accomplice to hiding a pregnancy isn't on my agenda for the day."

"Please, Polly. Please do this for Nick. You know how important it is for him to get his badge back."

I knew a few things for sure. Lying to Phoenix made me uncomfortable and I also knew that like me he had certain methods for detecting lying so I wasn't even sure this was feasible, but at the same time Maya was right. The thought of Maya pregnant would surely throw him off kilter. After all, he was protective of her almost to the point of obsession, but I figure you couldn't really blame him since she'd been kidnapped, framed for murder, and been the victim of various other nefarious schemes multiple times. Not to mention the fact he spent many years barely getting to see her.

I knew how that felt…I was missing Vera like crazy.

"Fine. I'll do it." I said. "But I won't lie to him. If he guesses and asks, you can lie to him if you want, but I won't."

"Deal." She said throwing her arms around me. "I love you, Polly!"

I grinned. When I first met Mr. Wright he had been a disgraced attorney jailed for a murder he didn't commit barely making ends meet for him and his daughter and he appeared to have the social skills of a turnip. And while he was still broke he had been cleared of all wrong doing in the Graymarye trial and was happily married to a beautiful woman and going to have his first biological kid. I admit it. I like happy endings.

"Is it ok if I tell Vera?"

~xxxx~

Normally I didn't have much to talk to Vera about when we were on the phone together so getting to tell her that Maya and Nick were having a baby was a thrill. When my phone rang with my nightly call from her I felt like I was bursting at the seams to share the news.

"Hey. How's it goin'?" She asked. She was sounding pretty upbeat herself. She must have been making progress.

"Good."

Vera's life in Europe had improved a lot since she had gotten to leave Frank behind in Brussels. Her new partner, Olivier, sounded less intrusive.

"I have news!"

"Oh, let me guess!"

"OK"

"You bought a car."

"No." _That would be nice…_

"You won the case."

"You already knew that. That's old news now." We spoke to each other daily. I wasn't sure which one of us was having a harder time pretending we weren't still in love with one another.

"Trucy has a boyfriend?"

"No, not that I know of. Do you know something?"

Mental note: interrogate Trucy about potential beaus.

"Ahh…forget I said that. Ok, tell me. What is your spectacular news?"

"Well, it's not really **my** news, but I thought you'd like to know. Maya's pregnant!"

I didn't pull the phone away from my ear fast enough and I almost fell over in pain from Vera's squeal.

"I'm so happy for them. Mr. Phoenix must be so excited!"

"Well, that's the thing. Don't tell anybody, because **he** doesn't even know yet. Maya's been acting funny and I figured it out when Maya barfed this afternoon."

"You really don't think Phoenix will figure it out? I mean no offense, but you figured it out and he's her husband."

"I know I would think he could guess it too, but Maya doesn't want to let him know before the exam. You know how he is."

"Yes, he's like you are about me." I wondered if I should say something. Should I let this obvious allusion to my feelings for her get by? Or should I acknowledge that yes I care about her tremendously and therefore find myself fretting about her safety. Ever since we had "broken up" I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel or act because I was still in love with her. My feelings for her hadn't changed I'd merely been stupid enough to lose my title as her boyfriend and without that status I didn't have a clear idea about what was and wasn't appropriate. I was like a mountain climber scaling a rock wall…during an earthquake.

"Veeeerrrrrrra, I…"

"It's ok, Polly. I don't mean anything bad by it."

Then we were quiet as though giving a moment of silence for our deceased relationship and then Vera squealed and started gushing about babies.

We speculated about what name they'd pick out and how excited Trucy would be to have a sibling. We talked about how little we knew about pregnancy and how cute babies were when they looked like little old men

Honestly, I couldn't believe I was so excited. I like kids well enough. I even volunteered at the foster kids' transitional housing, A Safe Place, on a regular basis but I never would have guessed that having one my friends be pregnant would make me so happy. It made me feel kind-of girly. Like I needed to go "man-up" or something but I realized then that I didn't really know any manly guys.

"They're going to be great parents." Vera said.

_Yeah, they will be. If we can just keep Nick from having a heart attack between now and the kid's first birthday._


	3. Chapter 2

Risenfromash: For some reason I'm really nervous that this chapter is crap. But here it is.

CHAPTER 2

"These are the books I need you to pick up for me," Maya had come over to stand by my desk while munching on a soda cracker. Saltines were the only thing she had successfully held down that morning.

The list she handed me had the titles of five books all of which had either "baby," "parent," or "expecting" in the titles. I grimaced. This wasn't as bad as having to go buy a girl tampons, but I still wasn't thrilled especially since I'd spent most of my morning listening to baby talk.

Since Maya hadn't told anyone else the news I was the only one she could share her excitement with and so she was talking to me about the baby all the time. The previous day's excitement aside I was finding it difficult to maintain my enthusiasm. At one point I'd felt like telling her to knock it off so I could get some work done but then I remembered that a) I didn't really have any work to do and b) Maya didn't have much family left and part of my duty as one of her closest friends was to act as her sounding board through her first few days of adjustment to her new reality…and to make sure she had a bucket within arms reach at all times.

_Maybe pregnancy becomes beautiful when the baby is bigger, you know when it looks like mommy simply swallowed a basketball for fun, but right now? Right now it seems pretty miserable, at least to me._

"Can't you just order these books off the internet?" I said looking down at the list.

"No, he'll see the package when it arrives and, besides, I want to start reading right away. I have questions. Stuff I need to know."

I sighed. Apparently, I had become the errand boy.

_Maya certainly is presumptuous._

"Besides, I don't want him seeing it on our bank account."

_Oh, I'm financier as well. How nice._

"Maya, don't you think you're carrying this a little far?"

"Polly, Nick is an investigator just like you! He'll figure it out if I don't take precautions."

I grinned at her. "Isn't not taking precautions what got you in this state?"

She grinned at me. "That and lots and lots of wild sex."

"Ugh! I didn't need to hear that."

"Consider it payback for us hearing you and Vera." She laughed.

I groaned. For the record, Vera and I had only gotten loud once but they'd never let me live it down. Vera they didn't say a word to, of course, but **me**…me they tortured unmercilously about it every chance they got. Like right then, for instance and the last thing I wanted to imagine were me and Vera in the throes of passion.

_Not when she's on the other side of the Atlantic and I'm…well, not. _I frowned. How many more months of her being in Europe did we have to go? I wasn't entirely sure since they had told her "up to nine months"…

_Nine months?_

"Is Vera going to be back before you have the baby?" I wasn't sure how far along Maya was or how long Vera was going to be away. It made it difficult to imagine the future.

"I really hope so, Polly. For your sake and mine." She wrapped her arm around my shoulder, leaned close to my ear and whispered, "Polly, why don't you just tell Vera the truth…that you didn't want to break up? Why are you torturing yourself like this? She's not happy either you know."

I grunted. _I don't know that for sure and at this point I'm unwilling to find out. We need time and space._

"I don't feel like it's something I can do over the phone. When Phoenix realized how he felt about you did he call you?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I thought he said he went to see you."

"Oh, he did. He called me and told me he was coming and needed to tell me something important. He said he had to see me…oh. I see your point."

"I can't do it over the phone."

She nodded. I had swayed her to my point of view amazingly easily. I wondered if that was because she genuinely agreed with me or if it had something to do with the fact she seemed tired again. She pulled away from me and walked over toward the couch.

"Well, I'll be here when you get back." She said sitting down.

I blinked at her in confusion.

_She seems to have forgotten that I'm not Nick. I'm not her husband or the father of her baby and, therefore, I don't take orders from her._

But she just met my incredulous look with a sweet smile. "Thank you, Polly. You're such a good friend. I'm going to take a nap." And with that she pulled her legs up on the couch and closed her eyes.

_Ugh! What a lazy butt! No, wait…she's pregnant maybe that's not fair. Being knocked up makes women super tired right? Her body is constructing a baby out of legos or something even while she's sleeping, right? That takes a lot of energy, I guess._

She looked so peaceful and happy especially considering not twenty minutes before she had been upchucking. Her eyes were closed and her hands were placed on her belly as though she were already snuggling the baby though even with my **extremely** limited knowledge about them I was pretty sure the baby was no bigger than a peanut at this point.

I shook my head. Why were Phoenix and I such suckers for girls?

I grunted to myself.

_Apparently, I'm taking a trip to the bookstore._

~xxxx~

Normally, I shopped at the family-owned used bookstore in my neighborhood, but for this I headed straight to the nearest mall. I hate the mall with a passion, but I figured the bookstore there would be big enough to have everything Maya wanted and the sooner I got her the books the sooner Maya would have something to occupy herself with besides talking a blue streak to me, sleeping, and throwing up.

I scanned the store and found the sign proclaiming the area devoted to "Parenting/Pregnancy" and I entered it for the first time in my life. It was a scary aisle. Everything there was in pastel.

_I'll have to ask Vera if there is some reason people insist on surrounding babies by muted tones. Don't they actually like high contrast better?_

_Ugh!_ I was thinking about her **again**, while in the baby section no less. The irony did not escape me as I tried to focus my thoughts on something besides her and our break-up.

_You're pathetic, Apollo. They're other fish in the sea, man, and besides she'll be back in less than a year. Don't stand here pining because she admitted she had dreams of starting a family with you someday. After what you did you're lucky she's still talking to you._

I was hugely lucky to have Vera as my friend and I tried to remind myself that there was no reason to rush into anything with any woman, especially considering how much "fun" I was having dealing with Maya at the moment. However, I knew Vera was different. Vera had impeccable manners. She would have said please and thank you and never would have just assumed I would drop everything to go run an errand for her. But that's Maya. She is entirely driven by impulse. I'm sure she must have ADD or something.

I looked at the spines of the books attempting to find the specific ones Maya had requested. I kept grabbing the wrong ones because they all had similar titles.

One book caught my eye. It was titled, _Sharing the Gift: Placing Your Baby up for Adoption_. I wondered if it might help me better understand my mother's decision to give me up, but I didn't even bother to examine it. If it were called _Abandoning your Child to the Foster Care System: A How-To Guide_ then I would have picked it up for sure. I laughed at my own self-pitying joke and collected Maya's books.

I headed toward the checkout, but on the way I passed the comic book and manga section. I used to read quite a few comics when I was in jr. high, but I hadn't read any in years. I glanced over not expecting anything to appeal to me, but there it was drawing me in. It couldn't have been more perfect if it had had my name written on the cover of it. There was a manga with an incredibly kick-ass gigantic RED robot on the cover! I was quickly reverting back to my seventh grade self as men so often do in the presence of cars, cool toys, or hot chicks or in this case massive robots drawn in bold black lines. I was going to have to check that book out.

I love robots. I don't know what it is about them, but I have always loved robots. Some guys have an obsession with zombies or ninjas or pirates, but me it is big ole robots. I set the baby books down and picked up the manga and examined the illustration on the cover that looked like a cross between a medieval knight and a metallic penguin. I know, it sounds cheesetastic, but somehow they had pulled it off. The thing looked awesome. I allowed myself to become engrossed in the description on the back of the paperback.

_I'm here. I may as well enjoy myself._

"Herr Forehead, I'd be more than happy to loan you that entire series if you're interested. It's quite good."

My eyes got wide.

_Damn it. Klavier's here. There goes my fun._

"Oh, you've read it, huh?"

"Ja. It's very good. Very emotional. Don't let the poor description on the back and the cheesy slogan fool you. It is very high quality."

I nodded. I know almost as little about manga as I do about any other art form.

"It has a very sweet love story, too."

"Well, maybe I'll borrow it from you sometime…"

I put the manga back and out of habit picked up the pile of books I was purchasing.

Klavier leaned towards me, invading my space in that mildly intrusive way of his to take a peek at the books in my hands.

"Let's see what you picked out, today." His brows knitted together as he saw the baby books.

"Interesting choices, Herr Forehead." He looked concerned, genuinely concerned.

"They're for a friend."

"Has Trucy gotten herself in a bind?" He searched my eyes for signs of guilt.

"What? You don't think I? Klavier!" I whined his name. How could he think that?

"It seems plausible. You two do spend a lot of time together and I never said I thought her baby would be yours."

I squirmed under his gaze.

_That's true. Why had I assumed that's what he meant? Must be because everybody always thinks she's my girlfriend._

"For the thousandth time, Klavier. I don't like Truce like that! She's not my girlfriend. I'm with Vera."

He raised an eyebrow, but remained silent.

"Ok, we're broken up right now…but…you know what I mean." I said sheepishly and then recovered. "ANYWAYS, they're for a friend who **isn't** Trucy. Ok? Is that **ok** with you?"

I was sounding defensive for some reason, but Klavier tended to do that to me. "Well, I can assure you that Fraulein Ema doesn't need information in that department."

Ema and Klavier had been dancing around being in a relationship with one another for as long as I'd known them. Honestly, I had no idea what was going on between them. All I knew was even though Ema claimed to hate his guts if they were alone together in his office I would not only knock before I entered but also give them thirty seconds before I opened the door. I didn't think I wanted to see what they were doing in there.

I groaned. "I have other female friends than just the two of them."

He smiled. "Of course you do, Herr Forehead. I was merely using my deductive reasoning skills. You know how hard they are to turn off."

_What a load of crap. Ema does all his investigating. I'm not sure he can reason anything other than how to play a guitar._

"Herr Forehead, I did not mean to pry. I am merely interested in your life and your family. You are all very dear to me. As you can imagine I get lonely."

_Oh, my God. Klavier is opening his heart to me in the middle of the bookstore. I hope no paparazzi are hiding behind the Arachnidman section listening to this._

"Look, I don't mean to be acting like a jerk. I'm just sworn to secrecy about this whole baby thing. It's not my kid. I'm just a friend."

He nodded and smiled. "Someday it will be. You are very lucky to have Vera."

"But-" I had been under the impression lately that he feared I was going to ask Ema out because he wouldn't leave the two of us alone together. He was always there like some kind of gnat making my crime scene investigations virtually impossible and making Ema even grouchier than usual, if that was even possible.

"Herr Forehead, Vera loves you and you love her. Everybody can see that." I glanced away embarrassed to have his penetrating eyes seeing so accurately into my heart.

"Klav?"

"Ja?"

"Do you think there are a ton of guys in Europe trying to get with her?"

"Ja. Of course. She is hot." He grinned widely at me. Leave it to a rock star to appraise a girl strictly on her looks.

I hung my head, my shoulders sagging. He placed his hand on them and leaned down to peer into my eyes.

"But do not worry. Vera likes you best. As I said you are very, very lucky. I find myself constantly jealous of you."

I attempted a smile. "Thanks, Klavier."

"I will bring these manga into my office. You can pick them up anytime and keep them as long as you like. I should be going…I'm meeting Ema for lunch. Tell your pregnant friend I wish her and the baby well."

And then he was gone leaving me with the feeling that even though it was just a chance meeting in the graphic novel section of a crappy mall bookstore, the conversation I had just had with him revealed more to me about who Klavier really was and how much we had in common than anything we had said to one another before. It was then I realized he was a better friend to me and to all of us than I had ever believed he could be.

Standing in line at the check out I found myself thinking that maybe I shouldn't get so mad at him for calling me Herr Forehead all the time.

_I mean, when he isn't playing air guitar the guy's not entirely unpleasant._


	4. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Covering for Maya's condition wasn't exactly in my job description, but it promised to be an interesting challenge. Could Maya and I really pull this off against the super-observant former Ace Attorney?

The charade began easily enough because that first day Phoenix was out of the office a lot and the next day started out similarly. I had a case and so Trucy and I went to interview our client at the detention center while Maya stayed in bed. Phoenix studied and then went out to run some errands, but it got harder when the three of us all got home at about the same time and found Maya cleaning. Cleaning of all things!

Maya puts things away, but she doesn't scrub things. That's Trucy or Vera's job. Phoenix does the toilet cause he's super particular about how clean his crapper is for some unknown reason. See, we all have our jobs. But please don't believe that cleaning falls to the girls because Phoenix and I are sexist. Trucy accuses me and her dad of that all the time, but it's really a matter of practicality. Phoenix and I just don't notice messes until Trucy or Vera point them out to us. And when we have attempted to clean our efforts are pooh-poohed as haphazard, incomplete, or just plain shoddy and after you've heard Trucy's tongue-cluck of disapproval for the first time you are far less likely to try to clean in future. But in all honesty the messiest of us is probably Maya. I'm convinced she could live in a sty. She does just enough housekeeping to make sure none of us get Listeria or something but not enough for any semblance of order or decency.

But there we were at the office and Maya was down on all fours **scrubbing** the front of the cabinets in the kitchenette.

"Maya? Are you feeling alright?" Phoenix asked her.

_Since when does nesting start this early? Think of something, Apollo! Quick!_

"Yeah, a…she was just helping me. I spilt my coffee all over the place…big mess. Anyways, Maya was just helping me get it all cleaned up so you could have a snack when you got back."

This didn't sound completely ridiculous, but I needed to work on my delivery. I was probably sweating like a pig and I was stumbling over the words like a lying eyewitness.

_This is going to be tougher than I thought. Couldn't Maya act normal for a few more days?_

Phoenix didn't seem to buy our explanation, but just said, "Well, thanks." And grabbed some crackers from the cupboard that he munched as he eyed the two of us suspiciously and shuffled off.

I shot Maya the what-the-hell-are-you-doing-look and she shrugged.

_Damn hormones._

I turned around and almost bumped into Trucy, the other walking lie detector in our clan. I had forgotten all about her for a moment. She raised her eyebrow at Maya and me knowing that I had been lying not only because she knew I hadn't spilt any coffee but also because Trucy is even better at catching a liar than I am; she can do it unaccessorized.

"Polly, what's going on?" She leaned in to whisper to me.

"Nothin'."

"Liar."

"Even I'm allowed a few secrets."

"Not from me you're not." She smiled and I prayed that Trucy's strange power over me wouldn't take hold and make me blab.

"A man should be allowed some secrets." This was the dumbest thing I could say, but it never occurred to me how things might start looking.

"Polly, one should never have secrets with another man's wife…unless you're in a sitcom on TV." She rocked back and forth on her feet like she did whenever she said something she thought was terribly clever.

"We may as well be. You wear a costume everyday. Your mommy channels dead people and I've been caught with your magic panties in my pockets on multiple occasions. Face it, Truce, our life is one big comedy to whoever's watching."

"**Except** for the parts where people get brutally murdered or kidnapped and you were abandoned by your mother."

I exhaled. Why did it seem like my mother's abandonment of me was on my mind so much lately. Must be having a mom-to-be around. "Truce, quit your yammering. We have work to do. We gotta get over to that crime scene before Klema shows up."

"Klema? Klavier, Ema. That is hilarious, Polly! You gotta tell Daddy. It sounds like a disease. 'I can't come to work today. I got the Klema.'"

"It is a disease." I muttered knowing that Trucy and I would be forced to witness the two of them arguing and getting themselves all hot and bothered while we tried desperately to get some work done namely finding the missing murder weapon.

~xxxx~

But it wasn't until day five when my pact with Maya really got tested.

Phoenix and I were sitting in lawn chairs up on the roof trying to soak in some sun while studying property law, though honestly we weren't making good progress. The glare from the sun was too great and we both found laws governing ownership of property to be some of the dullest material one has to study as a lawyer. And you have to study a **lot** of boring stuff as an attorney.

Phoenix had seemed distracted and hadn't been doing a very good job answering the questions and he was getting frustrated. I'd never seen him like this. He was cursing himself for every answer he got wrong and muttering under his breath about how he didn't even want to be a lawyer again and why was Maya making him do this.

Nervously, I set the flashcards aside and closed my eyes pretending that I suddenly felt the urge to get a tan.

_Because, uh, I'm a bathing beauty at heart...ah that's it. Yeah._

"Apollo, can I ask you something?"

I opened one eye. "Sure. What's up?"

"It's about Maya."

_Oh, here it comes. Maya better not kill me. I told her I wouldn't lie to him and I won't. He's like my best friend…well other than Truce, of course._

Phoenix leaned toward me and said, "Has she seemed different to you lately?"

"No. Why?"

Did I answer too quickly?

"Well, not even a week ago she was all over me," he blushed and his words sped up out of embarrassment. "And now she suddenly seems really tired and I think she's losing weight. I'm worried about her. Maybe all those years of burgers and salty noodles are catching up to her. Maybe I should try to get her to go to the doctor…"

He seemed really troubled. I felt sorry for the guy, but I figured he could survive one more week of uncertainty.

_I don't buy this whole "I don't want to be an attorney again" BS. He's just scared shitless about trying and failing._

"Maya has been sleeping a lot lately, but I don't think it's anything to worry about."

"I don't know. It isn't like her to be so…" _Serene? Peaceful?_

"Lethargic," he said.

_Oh, come on man! How can you not have noticed? She's got the glow now. I had no idea what all this talk about pregnant woman "glowing" was. I thought it was a skin condition or something, but I get it now. It's how happy she is, like internally happy. She's going around with this little hint of a smile on her lips like she's got a **special little** **secret**. Think about it, Phoenix. You can work this out. I know you can, buddy._

"Or maybe it's her thyroid." _Or maybe you can't. How can you be so freaking brilliant and so completely stupid at the same time, Phoenix? Can you explain that to me sometime? I'd love to know._

"She keeps saying she has a headache…"

_Jesus, Maya! With all your creativity you couldn't come up with a more original excuse?_

"Well, it's been really hot in the office and I'm sure she's stressed about the exam almost as much as you are."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right. She's always felt guilty she wasn't there the day I lost my badge. She thinks that if I'd had help that day I might have been a little more cautious about what I was doing."

The whole situation made me feel sad. Here was Phoenix whose innocence in the creation of forged evidence had been proven but he still had to retake the exam and go through the entire application process to once again become an attorney and then there was Maya haunted by guilt that she hadn't been there to support him the day the shit had hit the fan. Both of them knowing that it was quite possible the scenario would have played out differently had they been together. But Vera had taught me that chasing "what-ifs" only leads to heartache. Her life was a case study in the importance of living in the present and once you've taken responsibility for the past to not dwell on it too much. You can't change the past. No one can.

"Phoenix, what were you thinking about that day in court before you presented the diary page? You've told me before that you were feeling distracted and I get worried…what if I-"

"You're not me, Apollo."

"I know that, but I want to learn from you. I mean isn't that the whole point of having a mentor?"

He chuckled. "I suppose so, but which one of us is it with the flashcards and which one of us is it stumbling through the answers."

"Very funny, Phoenix. You know that taking the exam is merely a formality. The fact I have a badge doesn't somehow make me better than you."

He looked at me as though he wasn't sure and then said, "Apollo, I don't think you'll make my mistake. Now let's get back to some hot property law action!"

_Way to dodge my question there, Oh Great Mentor of Mine._


	5. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

A day or so later Truce coerced me into staying up past my bedtime to watch one of her favorite movie stars, Corey Garrison, being interviewed on _Super Late_. I must have dosed off sometime after the interview because I found myself still on the couch but with a blanket around me and I was alone. Trucy must have headed into her bed after tucking me in.

Then I heard what must have woken me. It was the creaky floorboard in the office's hallway. It had been my nemesis when I would sneak home after spending the better part of the night upstairs with Vera back when we were first going out, or "staying in" as she preferred to call it.

_Someone's up._ I peaked over the back of the couch thinking it might be Phoenix sneaking some of that liquor he had stashed somewhere or even Trucy sneaking out to meet some boy. I was suspicious Vera knew something about Trucy's love life that had not yet been shared with me.

_Or it could be any of them just needing to pee. Detective Justice, you're off duty you can relax. But Trucy is way too young to be sneaking around. If it's her I need to tell her it's not ok._

But as the figure creeped through the office I saw that the form was unmistakably Maya. She tiptoed past me unaware of my presence and slipped out the door of the office.

Now, I believe that everybody deserves a little privacy, but at two-thirty in the morning I don't let anyone alone wander outside in their pajamas. It's just a bad idea. So I tiptoed behind her and I found her outside kneeling by the hedges at the front of the office building violently vomiting. She must have come out here so none of us would hear her.

_And anybody passing by would figure she was some drunk who had partied too hard._

The light from the streetlamp made the sweat glisten on her brow. Her hands curled the way Vera's do when she has a panic attack. She sounded like she was trying to turn herself inside out. But then with one final gut wrench she was done and collapsed upon the ground. I started to run towards her, but stopped as she abruptly sat up and took a few deep breaths to ease her panting. She pulled her feet under her in a cross-legged position and closed her eyes as though in meditation. Then she smiled and rose and tiptoed back into the house.

I ducked into the shadow so she never knew I had seen her, but I had. And what my logic driven mind had seen led me to believe that her movements were calculated as though they were routine.

_I thought she wasn't throwing up anymore, but I bet she's doing this every night!_

I scanned my mental database for any other pregnant women I had experience with that I could compare her to. Should she be puking this much and that violently? Unfortunately, I had very little experience with women, much less pregnant ones.

There had been a classmate of mine in high school who got pregnant, but I didn't know much about her other than that I felt sorry for how she got treated by everybody. As if she were the only student at the school having sex. Give me a break! Then there were a few women at the courthouse and the police department. I remembered them all being tired and a few of them had to shorten their hours on their feet or have a stool to rest their feet on. Some of them were super bubbly and some of them were grouchy, though no more than Ema was on a good day. But I had no idea how much they had been throwing up or nauseous. This just didn't seem normal to me.

_Phoenix, your spawn is killing her. Is this the real reason you have no offspring? Did all that grape juice make your kid toxic or something?_

Up until this point I thought that maybe Maya was milking this situation a little as I had seen plenty of other pregnant women working and caring for themselves and their other kids just fine, but seeing her body retching like that reminded me of when I got food poisoning from the courthouse cafeteria and I had been so sick I had wanted to die. If she as feeling like that every night no wonder she was wiped out.

_She needs to tell Phoenix. Maybe I'm wrong and all this is normal, but either way she shouldn't be sneaking out __**here **__to throw up. It isn't safe. I gotta convince her to tell him. __**Now**__._

The test was soon, only the day after tomorrow, but as far as I was concerned it was time to come clean.

~xxxx~

The next day Trucy and Phoenix were in the office with me and Maya so I had to wait quite a while to get a chance to talk to her about my worries. Maya said she wanted to help me out so I gave her some files to put away for me but my sloppy handwriting prevented her from actually being much help because she couldn't figure out what cases any of the files were for. Eventually, Phoenix went out to get some groceries and Trucy went out to work on a school project leaving Maya and I in a position to converse about the baby and I told her it was ok to give up on organizing my papers as the situation was probably hopeless anyways. So she made herself a cup of peppermint tea and plopped into Phoenix's office chair to drink it while staring off into space.

"Maya, this is getting ridiculous. Phoenix knows something's not right with you. A few days ago he was asking me about it."

Maya shook her head. "Polly, I know what I'm doing. He can't handle it right now and being pregnant isn't **that** big a deal otherwise none of us would be here. I'll survive."

_I dunno, Maya. You seem a little sicker than those books made it out like you should be, but then again what do I know? I was only reading over your shoulder, after all, but I'm still worried about you. Nick should know. If you were fine then it'd be one thing, but you're really weak. I know you are. You don't need to be ashamed that this baby is kicking your butt. Just blame Phoenix. I know you're good at that._

"Nick is worried about you and letting his imagination run wild is probably worse than just telling him the truth and getting it over with. I'm coming really close to telling him myself."

"No, Polly! You promised."

I walked over to her and spun the chair so she faced me. I could tell she was upset. Her and Nick shared everything. Lying to him had to be tearing her up on the inside. I was having a hard enough time concealing the truth from Trucy and we were just friends.

I knelt in front of her and took her hand. "Maya?"

I looked into her eyes. "Maya, you gotta tell him the truth."

"I…I…" Maya was about to cry. She felt that getting Phoenix's badge back was the most important thing in the world to him, but I knew it wasn't. When I first met him I probably would have thought so, but not after Trucy had told me how Mr. Wright a man she had just met had invited her to live with him and become his daughter after her biological father vanished. He immediately did what he had to do to care for her, swallowing his pride and doing whatever it took to make money with which to support her. He fought the Department of Child Safety for the right to be able to adopt her. He scrounged to buy her the magic panties she wanted so badly. He worked to get her accepted into a special performing arts alternative school.

This was not a man whose career was as important to him as the people he loved and he hadn't even had nine months to get used to the idea of being a father with Trucy. He had become her daddy overnight.

But I understood why Maya believed the exam was so important. She and I could both sense the bittersweetness when he praised my victories, the longing in his eyes when his gaze fell upon my shiny golden badge. Yet, I also knew that no amount of support or sacrifice she had given him in his lawyer days equaled what she was going through for him right now. My mouth opened to find a delicate way of explaining to her that she needed to quit worrying so much about his stupid career and his pride and instead allow him and her to focus on what was most important right now her health and the baby's health.

"Maya, I think Nick-"

"Hi, am I interrupting something?" Phoenix had entered the office without either of us hearing it. I leapt to my feet dropping Maya's hand like it was a hot potato.

Phoenix handed Maya a flower. It was some kind of a daisy-like bloom. "For you."

"Oh, thanks, Nick! No, you haven't missed anything. Polly and I were just having a discussion about how best to file these briefs. I say they should go alphabetically and Polly thinks they should go chronologically."

This was the most smoothly executed lie Maya had crafted yet. I was impressed. My bracelet had squeezed me, of course, but not that badly.

"I'll go put this in some water. Thanks, Nick!" and Maya trotted off to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Phoenix looked lost for a moment. Sad almost.

_Don't worry. She'll tell you tomorrow. She's only doing it because she loves you more than anything else in the whole world even her own sanity…and mine._

Abruptly Phoenix's expression changed and he seemed like his usual self. He smiled at me and said, "You've been working so hard how about you and Trucy take a day off and go have some fun. Get away from the office for awhile."

That sounds great. I could use a break…but wait what is Maya doing?

Maya was standing behind Phoenix's back waving her arms and shaking her head in a sign that I was to find some excuse for not leaving her alone.

"You know, Phoenix, I'd love to, but Trucy and I have been talking about taking a day trip to the water park in Landover and neither one of us have saved up enough money yet. So I think we'll wait until we do. I don't want to disappoint Trucy. I promised her I'd take her as a reward for finding that missing knitting needle."

"What are you talking about? I'm not missing any of my knitting stuff. I just got bored with it." Maya said walking up to Nick and putting her arm around him, a contented smile upon her lips.

"Not yours. In our last case, Frederick Wentworth was stabbed by a knitting needle and good ole Truce found it. In a haystack, no less."

Maya probably thought I was making this up, but it was the honest to God truth. Trucy, the world's most amazing assistant, had dug through an entire haystack looking for the damned thing while I distracted Ema with stupid questions.

_It was weird. Ema hadn't acted at all surprised when I wasted a bunch of her time presenting her with meaningless crap and asking her about it. Like I'm in the habit of doing that or something…_

Phoenix whistled. "Trucy did that? She didn't even tell me…"

"Yup. You should take her out for ice cream. She's missing spending time with you."

Phoenix assumed his guilty expression and brandished his cell phone from his pocket. "That's a good idea. I'll meet her on her way back from school. We need a little father daughter time. Maya, you don't mind do you?"

"No, of course not Nick. I never mind hanging out with Apollo."

I smiled. Maya and I had once again dodged his company and his questions.

_In a little over twenty-four hours she'll tell him and then Maya will be all his proble…er blessing._


	6. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

The next day was the exam. The night before we had ordered pizza and quizzed Phoenix until he started flubbing up so much I suggested we just stop the cramming and let him relax. He had mouthed the words "thank you" to me as he munched on pizza and leaned back on the couch to mindlessly watch TV with the rest of us, but he seemed tenser than I would have liked him to be.

_He doesn't honestly think with all his experience and his crazy-ass luck he's not going to pass does he?_

He kept looking over at me like maybe he wanted to talk but he never said anything and I got so absorbed in the disaster movie we were watching that I entirely forgot to ask him what was on his mind.

~xxxx~

The next morning, I didn't bother to get dressed but just stumbled down the stairs in my early morning haze still wearing my pajamas. There had been a time when being around everybody in my pjs would have made me feel awkward, but that seemed like a very long time ago. We'd all been through so much together that even though it had really only been about a year since my life collided with the Wrights' world I found myself in a completely different mindset than I had been before the faithful day I met Trucy.

She and Phoenix had changed my world both personally and professionally in ways I had never anticipated. Yet somehow I felt like I'd always known Trucy, like somehow she'd always been a part of my life. The same goes for Phoenix, too, in an odd sort of a way. They were my adopted family even though I had no legal documentation to prove it and though I complain about Trucy's bossiness and nagging and Maya's messiness and Phoenix's inability to communicate I love them all.

And so I sacrificed precious extra hours of sleep dragging myself out from under Vera's super comfy comforter to drag myself to the office to see Phoenix off on the big day. See, the bar exam doesn't start till nine am, but the Bar Association feels the need to have everyone show up at least an hour early to get checked in. As though it takes that long to look at photo ids. Honestly, I'm convinced the entire process is a form of psychological torture that the Bar Association members find amusing. I mean why else would they seat you and make you stare at the backside of the exam booklet for almost an hour prior to letting you turn the damned thing over and start?

I remember when I took the test I just wanted to start, get done, and then go get drunk and that seems to be pretty much the universal plan of all those taking the exam, as when I was done I found a lot of other wanna-be attorneys all chugging down pints at the same bar I was at. Somehow after you get some booze in your system you aren't quite as obsessed over those questions you feel you should have been smart enough to know the answer to.

I remember one question about paternity law that I agonized over for way too long convinced that none of the answers provided were the correct one.

_Poor Phoenix. I think I'd rather gouge out my eyeballs than have to take that test again. Not that I'll admit that to Vera. She's so upset._

Downstairs, it only seemed to be Trucy and Maya up. They were making coffee and tea and munching on donuts.

"The man of the hour still in bed?" I glanced at my watch. If he was he would need to hustle to get showered, dressed, and to the bus in time.

"No, he's on the phone in his room."

"Oh." I said. I was rather sure Phoenix wasn't in the habit of taking phone calls this early in the morning and I knew Vera had called and talked to him the previous night, no doubt apologizing for the millionth time about his loss of badge and having to retake the exam.

"Vera again?" I sighed. Phoenix had told her he refused to listen to another apology from her and he and I kept lying to her telling her that the exam wasn't that bad, that we were just whiners and that it was no big deal to retake the exam.

Maya smiled at me and shook her head. "No, thank goodness. No, it's Edgeworth. They've been talking for almost an hour." My mind boggled. I don't think I've ever talked to another man for an hour, definitely not on the phone.

"Doesn't that bother you?" I asked.

Maya shook her head and glanced toward the closed bedroom door. "Not at all. I think it's sweet how much they care about each other. Phoenix is so excited Edgey is moving back here."

I shrugged.

_I just don't get those two. Phoenix and I are really close, but we're not like __**that**__._

"Polly, it's kind of like you and Klavier." Trucy butted in to the conversation in that authoritative way of hers. "You guys are rivals and fight like crazy, but I think if push came to shove you'd do anything for one another."

"No, I wouldn't!" I grimaced. "And he needs to quit flirting with me." I said angrily stuffing too much donut in my mouth. "It's pissing me off."

Maya and Trucy started cracking up. I wasn't sure if they were laughing because they knew he **did** flirt with me or if they thought I was crazy, but the man does it. He always has and he probably always will. I swear. And I'm not even convinced he's gay. He's just…I don't know…Klavier. The man has a gift for flirting. He can somehow hit on both me and Ema in the same sentence.And I believe it pisses both of us off almost equally…

_Though I fear Ema gets turned on by it. She's a weird chick._

Phoenix emerged from his hovel of a bedroom smiling. Obviously, Edgeworth knew what to say.

"Feeling confident?" I asked him.

"Not at all, but Edgeworth told me if I don't pass it's your fault and he'll sic Franny and her whip on you."

"I think Polly might like that a bit too much." Trucy teased between bites of her jelly donut.

"Guys, I'm not into Franziska. Honestly, the woman kind of scares me."

Phoenix leaned toward my ear and in a low voice said, "Franny scares all men. That's what makes her so hot. You don't need to be embarrassed."

I must have blushed scarlet. There is no denying Franziska is hot, but I was serious when I said she frightened me. I'm man enough to admit it. So, don't go starting any rumors about me and Franziska. I don't need Edgeworth freaking out on me. Ace attorneys seem to be universally overprotective of their significant others to the point of caveman territorialism, myself included.

~xxxx~

The day was almost unbearably tense at the office. It was probably as bad as at the testing facility. By afternoon we were all loosing it. Trucy paced around and kept popping The Amazing Mr. Hat out, Maya sat eating a bag of chips with her leg involuntarily jiggling as she tried to pretend to watch TV and I resisted the urge to call Vera for the fourth time that day.

But finally I just did it.  
"Hey!"

"Polly, now's not really a good time." Vera said kindly but hurriedly. Obviously, I was interrupting something.

"I know, but he's still not back yet."

"Well, how long has it been? I mean I don't even know what time it is there…"

"I'm sorry. I just don't know what we'll do if he doesn't pass."

"Polly, Mr. Phoenix is going to pass and Maya will tell him tonight about the baby and everything will be great. You'll see. Now try to relax. I gotta go. Olivier needs me to look at something."

"Yeah, Ok."

"I'll call you tonight. I promise. I love you."

"Love you, too."

I was so focused on Phoenix and Maya's predicament that I didn't even consciously realize until after I'd hung up what Vera and I had said to one another. I found myself glancing back at my phone wishing it had a transcriptionist built in because I really wanted to make sure I hadn't imagined her choice of words. Had Vera just said she loved me, all natural and calm like before we broke up? I wanted to dance, but I had to remind myself that Trucy tells me she loves me like twelve times a day and that doesn't mean she's **in** love with me.

_Thank God. That's all I need right now my underage best friend crushing on me._

But still her choice of words gave me hope, because Vera was not a chatterbox like Maya. Vera was always precise with her words choosing them like she would the proper brush or pencil to create a work of art.

I drummed my fingers on my desk picturing Vera's lips mouthing the words "I love you" and a plan began to formulate in my head. If Phoenix became a practicing attorney again **maybe** it'd be ok for me to take a few days off to go visit Vera. I could surprise her, tell her how sorry I was for being a big ole jerk, and we could get back together and I would no longer be haunted by images of her in the arms of some burly rugby playing Interpol agent who knows all about art and cuisine and chooses his words carefully enough to not say dumb things like "if you do this I'm not your boyfriend anymore."

_Ah, yes, Apollo. You could learn a thing or two from Vera, such as sometimes you should **think** before you speak, you damn hothead._

I closed my eyes and imagined me and Vera in Generic European Oasis walking down quaint cobblestone streets hand in hand, riding gondolas, touring gardens and ruins of ancient cities before returning to my room to enjoy room service and a romantic evening just the two of us.

_Phoenix, you better pass. Maya and the baby need you to and now I do, too. Cause I'm going to Europe! Hot diggity!_

So moved was I by my ridiculous vision of my own personal _Roman Holiday _that I leapt from my office chair resulting in Maya almost choking on one of her potato chips.

"Polly, what's wrong with you?" Trucy said eyeing me suspiciously.

"Nothin'…I just felt the need to get up and do something."

"Unhuh." She said knowing I was lying. "Well then you can help me get your apartment decorated for the party."


	7. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Maya and Trucy had decided to throw Phoenix a special little party after the exam. Since we decided to just stay in they had me ask Vera if we could have it at our..er.. my…Vera's apartment. I didn't even know what to call it since I had technically been living there with Vera before she left, but had she not left for Europe I might have been kicked out…but then again had she not wanted to go to Europe we never would have broken up. At least that was how I felt.

Trucy had decked out the place with balloons and streamers and made a big banner that said, "We object to waiting for test results!" It was cute.

We had pinned a note to the office door telling him to come upstairs for dinner and when he walked through the door he looked haggard. It had obviously been a tough day.

"How'd you think it went?" I asked eagerly.

He shrugged. "The test has changed a lot since the last time I took it. I'm glad I reviewed all that divorce law stuff because they had a ton of it on there. Like I'm ever going to use that…" And then he laughed in an awkward hollow way.

_Crap! It must not have gone well._

"Nick, don't worry about it. I'm sure you did great. Come sit down Trucy made us dinner."

Dinner was delicious some kind of steak with onions and garlic mashed potatoes. I never realized Trucy was such a good cook. It made me wonder how she had learned to cook since Maya and Nick had the combined culinary talent of a chimpanzee. Despite how good the food was I noticed Phoenix didn't eat that much.

Poor, guy! The test must have been a killer this time!

Everyone was unusually quiet at dinner. Probably for some groups of people it wouldn't have seemed quiet what with Trucy constant chatter about her panties and a new trick she was going to premier at the wonder bar the next week, but I noticed that Phoenix in particular was quiet.

For dessert we had cheesecake and everyone seemed to try to figure out what we wanted to do next. Trucy was trying to get us to play a trivia game with her, but we all knew she would win so we weren't that into the idea.

"Maybe, I should just go to bed. It's been a long day." Phoenix said and I glared at Maya.

_Now would be the time to tell him._

Instead, Maya said she needed to go to the bathroom and Phoenix excused himself from the table and at Trucy's insistence went to sit on the sofa rather than going back downstairs to his hovel. She looked at me in dismay. She was obviously upset that her party was not being better received.

Phoenix was sitting with his head in his hands looking very, very tired.

"Daddy, is something wrong?" She said taking a seat next to him.

"No, not at all."

"Daddy, I don't believe that."

Then Maya came back from the restroom and snuggled up next to Phoenix on the sofa. Phoenix smiled weakly and Trucy jumped up and said, "Ok, let's play charades!"

"Yeah, let's!" said Maya suddenly more energized than I had seen her in weeks.

Trucy went first and after a lot of work we figured out she was signing the title of the movie, "Three Pirates and a Monkey."

Then Maya mischeviously said she had one and she got up and pointed to herself grinned and cupped her hands together like she had a big stomach. I kept my mouth shut. It seemed like a helluva way to find out your wife is pregnant, but Maya and Nick function differently than most people.

"You're Santa Claus!" shouted Trucy.

Maya shook her head and laughed and then cupped her hands together again this time rocking them like she was rocking a baby.

"Oh, you're having a baby!" Said Phoenix so into the game he didn't realize what he was saying. Maya hopped up and down and smiled and then Phoenix's smile dropped.

"You're pregnant?"

She was all smiles and ran over to hug him, but Phoenix still looked puzzled and I saw him glance at me so quickly I was sure nobody else caught it.

Phoenix collected himself and said, "That's great." But for some reason he didn't sound like he thought it was great.

Maya threw her arms around him and said, "I'm so excited. I'm sorry I didn't know how to tell you. I know I should have told you sooner, but I just couldn't. Not with the exam…"

And then Phoenix's face brightened as if a light bulb had lit above it.

"Apollo knew and helped make excuses to cover for you."

"Uh-huh. I'm sorry. I made him do it. He tried to convince me to just tell you, but we were so worried about the exam and-"

Phoenix gave Maya the biggest kiss and said, "I love you, Maya."

Then he turned to me and said, "I love you, Apollo."

All of us looked at Phoenix like he had grown a second nose, but Phoenix was just grinning from ear to ear. "Oh, I'm so relieved. I thought you and Apollo were having an affair."

The aftershock of this comment was I'm sure heard by the neighbors.

I shouted, "What?"

Trucy scolded, "Daddy, how could you think Mommy and Polly would do such a thing?"

And Maya just sat there silently with her jaw dropped open.

Phoenix looked startled by the reaction. "What was I supposed to think? You won't come with me to the courthouse. You stay in bed or hang out with Apollo at the office all day. Apollo gives me all these lame excuses about what your problem could be…"

"You're supposed to have faith in me and realize that if I was going to cheat on you I wouldn't have waited around for years to **marry** you first." She didn't look genuinely mad, but I still felt like her feelings might have been hurt.

"Look I was upset because I could never imagine you guys lying to me like that. I just didn't know what was going on. It seemed logical. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to both of you, but Maya you should have told me. I've been so upset."

"Well, I wasn't just worried about the exam. There's a little more to it than that. See, I went to the doctor and it's twins."

This was news to me, too. And everybody in the room fell silent with the overwhelming news. Not just one baby, but two!

"I'm going to be a dad…" said Phoenix dazedly.

"You're already a daddy, Daddy," corrected Trucy.

"Of course, but you know Trucy you came to me already toilet trained and you took care of me more than I took care of you. I'm not ashamed to admit I haven't been the best father."

"Daddy, you're a great father, but you need to not jump to conclusions. You better not be planning on doing that in court."

He shook his head. "Trucy, I'm not sure Daddy's going to be back in court soon. The test really didn't go well. I don't wanna let you guys down, but let's not count any chickens before they hatch. Ok?"

_No, Phoenix. Not okay. You're gonna pass and I'm going to go on vacation and confess my undying affection for Vera. I will grovel till she takes me back so no rugby playing Interpol agent steals her away from me. This isn't about you anymore, Mr. Wright! This is about me and Vera! You better pass that test, dammit!_


	8. Chapter 7

**Risenfromash:** I'm going to say this straight up. This story is going to end at a point many of you are not anticipating, because this is part of a much larger story arc narrated by Apollo Justice. I've chosen to continue the Vera/Polly and Maya/Nick story arc in little chunks as I have been doing. I could have continued this story straight through the nine months of Maya's pregnancy, etc. but each portion of the story carries with it a slightly different feel or theme so I consider this story complete. Think of a movie like _Back to the Future_ and you'll understand what I mean. If you are confused by the order of the stories check my profile page or PM me. Also, check author notes at the end of this, the concluding chapter of _The Things We Do For Love,_ and as always thank you for reading.

CHAPTER 7

It was almost two months later when an official letter arrived at the office. I held it in my hands and said a little prayer. It's not that I don't have faith in Phoenix, but the test doesn't in any way correlate with ones **actual **abilities.

_Come on. You don't need a super high score; you just need to pass._

"Hey, Phoenix. I think this is it man." I said.

As if suddenly magnetized to me Trucy and Maya appeared from wherever they had been and I found myself surrounded.

"It's about time! How freakin' long does it take to run forms through a scantron machine?" Maya complained.

I nodded. I'd always wondered about that, too. I was convinced that the waiting was yet another part off the Bar Association's plot to torture greenhorn attorneys.

Phoenix walked over looking none to eager to get his results, but he held out his hand and I slapped the envelope in it like a nurse provides a surgeon an instrument. This was it. The reckoning day.

"Daddy, it'll be ok either way you know that, right?"

Phoenix nodded.

"But, he's going to pass." Maya stated whilst rubbing her belly. She was already starting to show a little. That tiny frame of hers made it impossible for her to hide that she had a bun…er two buns in the oven. "I can sense it."

I glanced at Maya. I wasn't really sure if being a spirit medium gave you powers of precognition or not but I've heard crazy shit about pregnant women having visions…but I thought they were usually about their future kids not their hobo husbands, but you know, whatever. I figured that her confidence was surely a good thing.

Phoenix stuck his finger under the flap of the envelope, ripped it open messily and unfolded the official document inside.

We all inhaled.

He shook his head. "Looks like you're in trouble Apollo."

I exhaled.

_Crap! Shit! Double crap! How could he not pass? The guy's brilliant!_

"Looks like you're going to have some competition in the defense attorney business." Phoenix said a broad grin appearing on his face.

"You bastard!" I formed a fist and whaled against him as he leaned against Maya laughing. It was so like Phoenix to use his pregnant wife as support.

"Did you see the look on his face? Too funny!" Phoenix was practically chortling with glee.

"Nick, you shouldn't tease poor Polly like that. You'll send him to an early grave and I've already got more than enough spirits wanting to be channeled to kick your butt."

"Oh, you do not!" He snickered leaning over to kiss her. "Mia's the only one and I've made an honest woman of ya. What more can she find to be mad at me about?"

Maya smiled and lifted an eyebrow flirtatiously. "Plenty." She stood on her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Told you you'd pass you big doubter."

"Yeah, well…" Phoenix seemed embarrassed by the attention. Ace Attorneys get a lot of attention; disbarred attorneys who pretend to have musical talent do not. He was going to have some adjusting to do.

For a moment we all stood in a daze looking at one another's smiling faces. One of the injustices we had suffered at the hand of Kristoph had been righted. Unlike, most things he did this had been reversible and together we had managed to do it. It was something to celebrate and so Phoenix pointed his finger and extended his arm.

"To the Wonder Bar, everybody!"

It was party time.

~xxxx~

The Wonder Bar was a fun place decked out in bizarre purple and blue gaudy decorations befitting a performance space for Trucy's art. Trucy was so excited that she bounced up and down like she was on a trampoline the whole time we walked to there and I found myself having to hop or skip next to her so that I could keep up.

When we arrived Phoenix grinned at the barman.

"What is this? Mr. Wright? I did not approve you bringing a party here."

Phoenix seemed prepared for this and said, "As I recall it is in Trucy's contract that I and a guest receive free drinks. Well, Maya here is pregnant so she can't drink. Trucy's too young so that leaves just me and Mr. Apollo Justice here." He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and grinned a toothy smile that insinuated that we were total innocents who would cause no trouble.

"No. I know you Wright. You will drink me dry."

Phoenix shook his head. "I'm sorry to hear you say that because I have here a copy of that contract and I believe that if you deny my friend here his fill of liquid refreshment you will be in arrears of our legally binding agreement and as of today I am once again a lawyer."

"God damn you, Wright." And then remembering that Trucy was present he turned to her and apologized. "Sorry, Trucy, dear, but your father is very irritating."

Trucy smiled and swayed happily back and forth on her feet. "I know. It's what we love about him. So hurry up and get Polly and him drinks or he'll sue the pants off you."

The bartender grumbled and provided each of us a drink in a large bowl-like glass and we waited for the girls to get something they could enjoy and then we held up our drinks. I started to toast Phoenix, but he shook his head. "To friends both here, abroad," he looked at me knowingly at that point "and passed." We all took sips of our drinks and then while the girls were distracted Phoenix mouthed to me, "And to Kristoph who can rout in jail or hell. We don't really care which," and he and I took massive glugs of our drinks.

After that Maya drug Phoenix over to a booth to sit and Trucy nudged me over to a table. I nodded. They didn't get a lot of time to themselves and Phoenix was in such a jovial mood it seemed like leaving them alone for a while would be a nice thing to do. So Trucy and I spent the night hanging out together. Legally she shouldn't have been there, but since she worked at the bar as an entertainer we could bend the rules and Truce was a good kid she had no interest in getting liquored up. Probably because she has seen what imbeciles her father and I are reduced to with the ingestion of alcohol.

That night the wonder bar had a swing band playing.

"Polly, come dance with me!" Trucy said bouncing and bobbing to the beat of the music. I grumbled. I don't dance. "Oh, come on, Polly. It's just me. It's not like you gotta impress me or something."

I nodded. Truce and I had danced before together and I had survived so I figured I could do it again even with a few drinks making me less coordinated than usual. Maya and Phoenix were tearing it up on the other side of the dance floor. They both looked like drunken fools.

"Truce, Maya hasn't been drinking has she?"

Trucy shook her head and smiled. "No, she's just happy to see Daddy happy. I think this is probably what they were like before."

"Before what?" I was confused. Maybe the alcohol was contributing.

"Before me."

I didn't even say anything I just leaned in and hugged her.

"Truce, you know it's not your fault and your mom and dad don't regret anything."

She sniffled a little. I looked at her with concern.

"Don't worry, Polly. It's happy tears."

"Promise?"

She nodded. It was rare for Trucy to let any of her grief show. She's like Maya in that way. I held her till she giggled and pointed over to Phoenix and Maya who were now doing some sort of dance move that looked like a cross between the funky chicken and the moonwalk. I grimaced.

"If anybody asks we don't know them, right, Truce?"

Trucy laughed and excused herself to go to the bathroom and I headed back to our table when a woman waved at me.

"Hi, Apollo!"

"Hello." I knew she worked there but was embarrassed that I didn't know her name.

"I'm Amelia. Trucy talks about you all the time. You're her brother, right?"

I shook my head. "I wish. Naw. We just say that so people won't think we're dating. People have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions because we spend so much time together."

"I can understand that. You two look like a couple out there dancing the night away in each other's arms."

I laughed. "I dunno about that. Trucy's fine, but I've got more problems than two left feet. I've got no rhythm."

"Well, she didn't seem to mind. She was clinging to you pretty tightly."

I raised my hand as though taking a solemn oath, "Strictly platonically I swear."

Amelia laughed. "I didn't mean to imply-"

"Yeah, I love Trucy. She's a pain in the butt, but I love her. Not, like a girlfriend. Not like Vera…" Amelia nodded and sighed.

"Yeah, Trucy told me about all that. She's in Europe, huh?"

"Yeah…" I said wistfully oblivious to the tone of disappointment present in her voice.

"Trucy's dad and his wife sure are cute!" Amelia said.

They were very cute or what I could see of them. They were making out in a booth in the corner. All I could see of Maya was her feet sticking out from between Phoenix's legs, a sandal dangling from each foot.

I'd never seen the two of them like this. They were usually pretty shy about showing signs of affection in public. I figured it was because of the way people tend to react to them due to Maya's childlike looks and behaviors, but honestly after living with both of them I knew the truth. Phoenix and Maya are perfect for each other. They're both big overgrown kids.

I was unintentionally staring and I knew it wasn't just cause they were cute. I was envious. I needed to get my passport as soon as possible or I felt like I might start crying the next time I saw a couple making out in the park or at the movies. I missed Vera something awful. I'm no tough guy. I couldn't shirk off her absence. It seemed like everything reminded me of her and how much I loved her and how long six to nine months really can be.

Trucy returned and smiled at Amelia.

"Oh, hey. You met my "brother," huh? Isn't he nice?"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't embarrass me, Truce."

"Amelia's our most talented waitress here at the Wonder Bar."

Amelia made a frumpy face. "Like that's something to be proud of."

"No, it totally is," I said without moving my eyes from Maya and Nick. Even all the way over where we were you could hear Maya's giggles of delight in response to whatever it was Nick was doing to her.

_I don't wanna know. It'll just make me jealous._

I decided I either needed another drink or to kiss a hot chick as soon as possible. I pried my envious eyes from my mentor who would undoubtedly be getting lucky that night and continued my discussion with Amelia. "I think being a waitress is probably way harder than what I do. I couldn't last a day in your shoes. I'm too impatient. I'd tell all the picky customers to get their own damned food if they were going to be so particular."

Amelia grinned from ear to ear. "You're just being nice."

"No. I bet it totally sucks to have your job. I mean your boss doesn't exactly seem like a people person and you probably get people hitting on you all the time."

Amelia blushed. "Why would you say that?"

"Cause you're really cute." The alcohol was affecting me. I wasn't normally so forward. Trucy's jaw fell open. "What, Truce? She is." Then abruptly changing gears I said, "Amelia, I think I want another one of these green ones." I indicated some kind of lime flavored drink I had finished consuming.

"Ok. I'll get it." She hopped up, but I shook my head. "Naw. You. You sit. Take a load off. I'll get it myself. You want something?"

"Polly, she's on the clock."

"Oh, yeah, right. Ok. Maybe some other time."

I walked off to get my "green thing" and when I returned Trucy whispered to me. "Do you like Amelia, Polly?"

I nodded. Why wouldn't I like her? She was nice, easy to talk to, had a great smile and I was really lonely and drunk. I sat back down ignoring further inquisitive looks from Trucy and continued talking to Amelia.

Amelia was telling me about Trucy's magic show and how much the audience likes the magic panties.

"Yeah, Trucy's magic panties are awesome. At first I thought it was a little weird, but now I can say quite comfortably that nobody and I mean nobody has panties I'd rather see inside more than Trucy's."

Trucy was staring at me and Amelia and the table and in retrospect I realize she was probably attempting to calculate my blood alcohol level and decide if I would be doing half of the things I was doing if I wasn't under the influence of at least a half dozen umbrella drinks. But I would have. I wasn't doing anything other than talking.

Amelia and I started speculating how Trucy did her magic panty trick and were conspiring about how to trick her into revealing the secret when my phone rang.

"Oh, sorry hold on a second."

I pulled the phone from my pocket and glanced at it. It was Vera.

"Oh, Amelia. It's been nice talking to you, but I've gotta take this."

I got up without looking back and started walking toward the nearest exit. I only existed for Vera.

"Hi, Polly! What's all that noise?" Vera said when I answered.

"Just a sec. I'm at the Wonder Bar. We're celebrating. Phoenix passed!"

Vera squealed as I stepped into the cool evening air. I had entered an alley and I looked around for a quiet spot where I could sit and talk to her. The only place I found that was reasonably comfortable was sitting on a plastic crate next to the stinky dumpster. But I took a seat never considering for a moment telling her I'd call her when I got home. Instead, I sat chatting with her perfectly contented. About twenty minutes must have passed before Trucy popped her head out of the bar and found me.

"There you are! Is that Vera?"

I nodded and she held out her hand to indicate she wanted a turn to talk to her.

I relinquished the phone without an argument.

"Hi, Vera." She said and launched into a rather rambling description of the last thirty-six hours or so. I continued sitting on my blue crate enduring the alcohol-induced wooziness until I became aware that Trucy was talking about me.

"He totally blew her off to come out her to talk to you….No, he's been out here in the **alley**…He's going to stink like garbage!…I know… He's pathetic, right?"

My eyes got big. I didn't need Trucy reporting all my actions or in this case lack of action to Vera. I jumped up.

"Trucy, give me the phone!"

Trucy giggled and ran down the alleyway. She was far more agile than me since she was sober and she was smart enough to know it. "Yup. It's love. He's turning down other girls just to **talk** to you…Un-huh. I think so, too."

"Trucy give me the damn phone!"

_Why does Trucy insist on spying on me and reporting to Vera? I'd like to sound like I might at least __**consider**__ dating someone else. I don't want her to think I'm just pining for her… even though I __**totally**__ am._

"Ok, I'll hand you back to Polly. Love you! I've got to go counsel Amelia that Apollo is so clueless he didn't realize she was about to ask him out. No, don't feel bad…Yeah, I'll apologize to her for you."

"Give me the phone!" I shouted.

_God, it is like having a little sister. I swear!_

I lurched forward and grabbed her.

_I never imagined myself being able to get my legal assistant in a chokehold without losing my job, but then again nothing about Trucy is like any paralegal I could have ever imagined._

Trucy finally said, "Uncle," handed me the phone and with a little tip of her hat and a wink disappeared back into the Wonder Bar.

I took a deep breath before bringing the phone back to my ear.

"Uh, hi." I said trying not to sound too terribly embarrassed.

Vera's happy little laugh on the other end of the line made me feel a little more relaxed. "Why don't you call me back when you get home, Polly?"

I grinned.

"You sure it won't be too late?"

"It'll be fine. I'll be relieved to know you made it home safely with all those umbrella drinks under your belt."

I blushed. Vera knew I didn't drink much.

"Maybe I should just let you get some rest-"

"Polly, I miss you. When you get home call me back and I'll keep you company."

I wanted to cry. She knew how much I missed her. She probably knew even before Trucy started blabbing about the waitress.

"Vera, I love you."

"I love you, too and this won't be forever, Polly. I promise."

I nodded and looked down at my feet. I felt very alone in the alley, but a part of me felt very lucky that somewhere halfway around the world a special someone was missing me, too.

"Ok. I'll call you in a bit."

I headed inside and found Maya and Phoenix at their booth playing something like Quarters. Maya was wearing her husband's hat and beaming at his every goofy gesture. He waved at me.

"Apollo! Did you get to tell Vera the news?"

I nodded. I was surprised he hadn't called her right away, but from the mischievous grin on his face I think he had intentionally let me be the one to impart the good news. He never talked like Pearly and Trucy do about "special someones," but I knew him well enough to know that he thought we had both found the person we were supposed to be with.

"She's very happy for you." I commented.

Phoenix smiled. "You think this will make her quit apologizing all the time?"

I sighed. "Knowing Vera, not likely."

"It's just because she cares so much about you," Trucy said.

Maya and Phoenix grinned. "Tell her to focus some of that care on poor ole Polly here. I don't know how much longer I can take him moping about." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, don't worry, Daddy. Polly has a plan to get her back…officially. He's going to-"

I kicked Truce under the table. Hard. I wasn't ready to talk to Phoenix about my plan to fly off to Europe yet. Besides, this was **his** night to celebrate the beginning of a new era with a bright new shiny defense attorney badge and little people running around underfoot. Phoenix had been through a ton of shit, but he was coming out on top and he was ecstatic. I don't think he could have grinned any bigger and why not? He had the girl, the perfect kid, two little mini-mes on the way and he had bested his greatest rival by proving he still had it, no matter what nasty things might have been said about him since he had embraced the hobo lifestyle.

_If Phoenix Wright can do it, I can do it._

~xxxx~

Life slipped into a pattern after that. Maya did everything she could to help around the office or toddle off to appointments while Nick grew more and more stressed about her health. Vera called me every night and sent me sketches by snail mail of some of the things she was getting to see and experience overseas and I plotted my triumphant return to boyfriend status as I made my top-secret travel arrangements.

_It's gonna be great. I'm going to get to see Vera! Then she'll be back home and we'll all be together again by the time the babies arrive. Oh, yeah!_

But I should have known by then that we Ace Attorneys rarely have lives that go as we plan them. If I had taken the time to consider the experiences of Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth I might have been smart enough to realize this, but it is only in hindsight that I can recognize how naïve I was to believe that I had everything all figured out. While in many ways my future turned out how I wished it would, I had no idea how bumpy a road I'd be taking to get to my happy ending or just how much road was still ahead of me.

**Risenfromash:** A couple more author's notes. The next story will be a one-shot of comedic nature titled The Death of Henry the Magnificent. I have at least one other story to write before Vera's return. Also, during the time of her absence is when Polly's Secret takes place. It is an interlocking story I wrote, but since it is not first-person Apollo Justice I don't consider it officially part of the arc. Also, it has more Trolly overtones than my first-person Polly stories.

You will notice that in the last chapter Apollo references Edgeworth. I have a couple half written stories about Nick's bachelor party and events at Nick and Maya's wedding in which Apollo gets to know Miles and Franziska, who yes are an item in my version of things. Hopefully, I'll get those posted soon, but suffice it to say that Apollo has met Edgeworth by this point and considers him a friend.


End file.
